MeatHead 2015-

D3monic · Jan 31, 2015

Those congos look darn good. Off to google to find out more about them. That powder you made looks good too.

Pinoy83 · Feb 1, 2015

AEROGARDENNNNNN :dance:

beerbreath81 · Feb 3, 2015

damn aphids :flamethrower:

Glad the overwinter is coming back for you. Been wanting to plant a tepin plant for a while, maybe next year. The chili flakes look really good too

MeatHead1313 · Feb 4, 2015

Aerogarden plants are growing extremely well. Need to research the best way to transplant them before the roots get too big

Cumari du Para roots-

Lemon drop has a flower close to opening

Now for the not so good. Not sure if this is from over watering, too much ferts, lights too close or from the damn aphids.

Devv · Feb 4, 2015

Checking for Aphids is the easy part, and I would think too much nutes would start with a darkening of plants that progresses to looking under watered. What I see from too much light is a purple effect. My guess would be over watering, but I'm here, and you're there

Do you have a fan on them?

MeatHead1313 · Feb 4, 2015

Devv said:
Checking for Aphids is the easy part, and I would think too much nutes would start with a darkening of plants that progresses to looking under watered. What I see from too much light is a purple effect. My guess would be over watering, but I'm here, and you're there

Do you have a fan on them?

Thanks Scott. I had been getting a fair bit of purpling last week, but raised the lights and it seems to have gone. My guess was over watering as well. No fan yet, but going to pick one up this week.

KiNGDeNNiZ · Feb 6, 2015

how deep to sow the seeds.. AEROGARDEN:

As mentioned. I cut the baskets in half. (Believe it or not. Not to long ago they sold other baskets thst snapped off) easier to pull them off the basket and allows you to reuse

PaulS · Feb 6, 2015

Aerogarden plants look great dude.
Aphids are a nightmare, I hope you get lucky getting rid of them.

MeatHead1313 · Feb 6, 2015

KiNGDeNNiZ said:
how deep to sow the seeds.. AEROGARDEN:

As mentioned. I cut the baskets in half. (Believe it or not. Not to long ago they sold other baskets thst snapped off) easier to pull them off the basket and allows you to reuse

Thanks for the video Denniz! Love the tip about cutting the pots. Will definitely be trying that. Going to be transplanting what I have in there next week when I get some good potting mix, I "was" going to put in some lettuce and kale seeds for my wife, but have a feeling some peppers I still have to sow will magically end up in there instead lol.

PaulS said:
Aerogarden plants look great dude.
Aphids are a nightmare, I hope you get lucky getting rid of them.

Thanks Paul. I hate aphids! Thankfully giving them a spray of organic pesticide I had knocked them down, and luckily didn't hurt a few remaining ladybug nymphs that were hanging around so hopefully they'll stay under control now. From what I saw when we moved into our new place last September, aphids are the least of my worries outdoors. Going to have a hell of a time with grasshoppers and caterpillars/hornworms as well. Good news is, already have plans in place for all of them!
Lemon drop flower has opened, so I have my first open flower for the year! Used a q tip to try to pollinate it, but didn't notice any pollen on it at all so not holding out hope for a pod

With my tepin having shown some new growth after I thought it was dead yet again, I trimmed all the dead growth off, and had to repot due to the old pot starting to break and brought it inside before our latest frost forecast. Didn't want to try to risk leaving it out again. It'll be interesting to see what it's growth habits are like this year compared to last. Last year it had 5 or 6 main branches that grew straight up, so even though it was over 2 foot high it was only around 1 foot wide. Still put out tons of pods though. New growth is coming on really well. Have it sitting next to a south facing window in the master bathroom

New additions to the family under lights. I have congo reds, yellow Nagabrain, a Stuffing bonnet, Soto La Marina tepin, and BBM and 7 pot Primo that have joined the party

In non pepper news, our aloe Vera plant is still going gangbusters, even with my wife cutting off leaves for moisturizer every now and then

Come plant out time I'll have a bunch of aloe plants to tend to along with the peppers and tomatoes. Big girl has pups galore that'll be taken off and replanted

beerbreath81 · Feb 6, 2015

Plants in the aerogarden looking good, I agree with Devv on possible water issues with the others but no worries I'm sure youll get em to bounce back. Remind me what a BBM is :think:

The tepin will be one to watch seems to be very resiliant. Aloe vera is rockin!

MeatHead1313 · Feb 6, 2015

beerbreath81 said:
Plants in the aerogarden looking good, I agree with Devv on possible water issues with the others but no worries I'm sure youll get em to bounce back. Remind me what a BBM is The tepin will be one to watch seems to be very resiliant. Aloe vera is rockin!

The more I think of what I've been doing, the more I definitely have to agree with you and Scott on over watering. From my limited time starting from seed, that seems to be the one issue I can't avoid lol. I need to learn to stop treating new sprouts and seedlings like established plants.
BBM is another pepper from Troy Primo. From what I've read it's a douglah/naga morich cross. Supposed to be crazy hot, but I haven't seen anything positive about the taste. Supposedly extremely bitter/battery acid taste, which I'd guess comes from the douglah as that's all I get from those. Figured I got the seeds for free when I ordered some of his sauce so I'd give them a try. At worst they'll taste as bad as I've read, and I can dry them and use them to keep possums/racoons/armadillos/whatever else off the rest of my plants lol.
That tepin has blown me away with how resilient it is! Wilds definitely seem to have some very desirable traits from what I've seen so far.

Devv · Feb 6, 2015

Once I move the sprouts to a solo, I bottom water. Every once in a while on a really young plant I add a tiny bit to the top if I feel the roots haven't drilled down to where the bottom water is. I then water by weight. The hard part is some really drink and others sip. I can check several and then find one that's drooping. The cool thing is once they have 4 true leaves they won't die if they droop a bit, but I check them every day.

MeatHead1313 · Feb 23, 2015

Finally sowed seeds for my 2nd round today. I'd become pretty despondent lately due to not being able to work out what's wrong with my Chinenses. Still battling the same problem, and even repotting into new potting mix doesn't seem to have helped. Thinking of setting up the mini greenhouse outside and just putting them in there to fend for themselves. If they make it-awesome. If not, I've still got a bunch of frozen pods to get me through the season.

In happy news, the 2 lemon drop and 2 Brazilian starfish plants from juanitos are kicking along great! Seriously need to get them into something bigger than the 6 inch pots soon

Starting to get a nice amount of flowers too

And even have my first pod for the year on a lemon drop!

Couple more sprouts in the AG. Brazilian starfish orange, aleppo and large orange thai

OW'd,twice thought dead tepin is growing along well. Definitely looks like it'll be much bushier than last year

My other surviving OW'S are still hanging around. Can't wait for these cold fronts to disappear so I can get them outside

My wilds from the AG seem to be doing well after transplanting. Cumari du Para and Galapagoense-

Cumari pollux and rocopica-

Devv · Feb 23, 2015

I'm right with you on the weather getting its head out of its butt!
35° here today as a high and the plants have to stay inside until Saturday. Next season I make the grow stations taller as they're pushing at the lights already.

Hopefully this is the last cold front....

MeatHead1313 · Feb 23, 2015

Devv said:
I'm right with you on the weather getting its head out of its butt!
35° here today as a high and the plants have to stay inside until Saturday. Next season I make the grow stations taller as they're pushing at the lights already.

Hopefully this is the last cold front....

Definitely hoping it's the last front. It was in the 70's here on Saturday, sitting at 40 right now. The yoyo temps are what I dislike the most. Hoping the 10 day prediction sticks for next weekend

Plantguy76 · Feb 23, 2015

Looking good chris I accidentally offed one of my Brazilian Starfish today.
I have gotten mixed results but wicked mike going to help me out.
I am waiting for my Peach Bhut Jolokia S S resowed wed 18 .
I be happy if I just get one to germ going to use my for tier greenhouse for isolation or making crosses
At lest thats what I am thinking

ronniedeb · Feb 24, 2015

Best of luck for the season! Will follow this glog with interest. Aerogarden is really doing the job for you.

MeatHead1313 · May 3, 2015

Been a long time since updates in here so here goes. Pretty much everything I started in soil this year bit the dust. No idea exactly what happened, but think it may have been either over watering, over fertilizing, f@$!#\g aphids, or a combination of all 3. Turned out to possibly be a blessing in disguise, as most were superhots and I still have a ton of supers in the freezer from last year to work with. Everything I started in the aerogarden has survived, and supplemented those with plants from Lowes and my favourite local nursery.
Time for pics. Raised bed is going nuts. Have 3 tomatoes and 3 peppers (large orange thai, carmen and New Mexico 6-4L) in the bed. Have green onions, assorted herbs, marigolds, couple of carrots and some volunteer peppers (either black Hungarian, Chinese 5 colour or black pearl) growing in the cinder block holes.

Still growing some plants in containers due to our terrible clay.

My wife and I built a couple of other semi raised beds for the rest of the peppers. At the time we didn't want to deal with hauling/carrying the cinder blocks so went without. Realise now that was a huge mistake as weeding will be a near full time job!

That's all the pics for now. Will get some pod pics and non pepper pics tomorrow.

jcw10tc · May 3, 2015

Looks good. I have terrible clay also. Spend about a month soon as ground thaws digging holes with post hole digger, then fill those holes with some potting type mix I make. Wife is insisting on raised beds, have a few but probably have to turn the main pepper patch into them end of this season. Good luck with everying, hope to be plating out soon myself.

MeatHead1313 · May 12, 2015

Update time. Waiting on my first sweet cherry pepper to ripen

New Mexico big Jims are podding up.

Some late sown beans starting off nicely. Have Chinese red noodle and blue lake pole here

Also have a late sown okra

Shishito loading up

Our Celeste fig is enjoying it's new home in a 30 gallon root pouch full of Dr Earth potting mix and is putting out a bunch of fruit

It's that time of year here to look out for the biting creatures. Found this little fella chilling in the shade on the side of our house

Bought a bhut jolokia from my favourite local nursery, but was unsure if it'd be true or something else due to horror stories I've read on here. Looks like I've got nothing to fear! Growing true, and bumpy as all get out

That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by!